At present I am investigating a person called Johann Ernst Eve (family name also: Ewe) who originates from Quedlinburg around 1720.
Does anyone have any idea of his parents? It is an ancestor of a friend of mine.
If you wish to respond, please do so in German. I understand German very well (but writing is difficult for me).
For some unknown reason (soldier?) Johann Ernst Eve left the Harz region and traveled west for some 450 kilometres. He married on 21 November 1751 in the Dutch village of Klimmen, between Aachen and Maastricht, where he founded a family. That marriage record is the first record that we have of him. His bride was a local girl called Helena Leunissen who was born in 1718 in the hamlet of Weustenrade, belonging to Klimmen. They lived in Weustenrade all their lives.
They had at least two children, Andreas Ernestes Even (1752) and Anna Elisabeth Even (1758). The children were baptised catholic (99% of the people between Aachen and Maastricht were catholic). The spelling Even (with -n) is a local adaptation. In his marriage record he is called "Ernst Eeve", but he wrote his own name as Johan Eve or Johan Ewe in 1773. There is evidence that he learned writing during his youth in Germany (typically German spelling features of Dutch words).
No relatives of Johann Ernst Eve seem to have lived in the area around Klimmen. For example there were no godfathers with non-local names, certainly nobody called Eve(n), when his children were baptised.
Professionally Johan Ernst Eve was a weaver (Weber). There is evidence that he was quite poor when he died in 1773.
The marriage record of 1751 reads literally: Ernst Eeve j.m. geboortig van Quedlenburg uit 't Maagdenburgse
meaning: "Ernst Eeve j(unger) M(ann), Eingeborener von Quedlinburg aus dem Magdenburger (Land)"
Any information is welcome.
Many thanks in advance, from the Netherlands
Edwin Verheijen
